'We damaged ourselves'

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) director Ahmed Sajjadul Alam said that the right the country has painstakingly earned in 30 to 40 years of international cricket was forfeited in the ICC meeting in February 2014 in Singapore. The meeting that is about to take place in Edinburgh is nothing else but a continuation of that day in Singapore, according to Alam.

“The people who are today shedding crocodile tears about the proposed two-tier Test table are the same ones who talked in favour of the system in Singapore. And it was the honourable [BCB vice president] Mahbub Anam who was one of those who took great pains to explain to us how the system would provide more matches and greater financial rewards.

“One has to understand that an initiative was taken during the tenure of [then ICC chairman] N Srinivasan about two years ago, through which there would have been major qualitative changes in the ICC constitution. A BCB meeting was held in this regard to discuss the changes. A vote was taken and I had voted against the proposal but I was massively outnumbered. I walked out. But all the changes that we are about to see were inherent in that controversial proposal two years ago,” Alam said.

Then a two-thirds majority was required for that proposal to be adopted by the ICC; South Africa, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and to some extent the West Indies were against it. But when Bangladesh voted in favour of those changes, the aforementioned boards gave up their opposition.

“We did the damage to ourselves. Those who are trying to say that the two-tier system is news to them are not telling the truth. This did not happen overnight. It is a continuation of that Singapore meeting two years ago. There was nothing new that they learnt today.

“If this two-tier proposal is ultimately adopted, it will mark the end of our dreams as a cricketing nation.

“Instead of shedding crocodile tears now, I only wish that these gentlemen had voted with me [in the board] against the ICC proposal,” he added.